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2013-01-27 - An Alien Crashes Down
It's mid-afternoon on a Sunday, and Superboy is out in the skies. It being the heart of winter, he's wearing his jacket over the primary colored body suit. He resists cold far more than you'd think, but perhaps it's his half-human DNA, perhaps he just hasn't absorbed enough Sunlight, but the real, bitter cold he can still feel. He's not moving at any real speed, not by Kryptonian standards. The earbuds coming out of his jacket and leading up to his ears might have something to do with that. He hums along gently as he passes over some temporarily fallow farmland, the planting season for whatever crop lies below still some time away. The skies are quiet, serene. That is until the sonic boom of something entering the atmosphere, the oxygen around the object super heating and igniting as it continues to careen towards the planet. A large meteorite perhaps? Superboy comes to an abrupt stop, watching the object come down. In a blur, the ear buds are gone and soon there's another sonic boom shattering the quiet skies, this one of a teenage genetic experiment tearing through the skies at speeds to fast for the human eye to even attempt to track. He's doing the kind of quick triage so common among heroes on his approach, judging trajectory, estimating the toll it'd take if it actually hit. The pressure caused by the object's fall having utterly engulfed it in plasma gives the young hero pause, as, even if he could stop it, it'd probably land him in a hospital, if not worse. So, when he sees that the ship is actually heading towards an empty field, he moves, not to intercept, but to be the first on the scene when it strikes. The object continues to fly down towards the earth, but as it nears impact distance it suddenly slows down after some form of energy pulse emerging from the front. Then, with a resounding impact, the object crashes down, steam and smoke rising from the impact site. It was big, real big. But now that it had stopped moving, Kon could see it appeared to be some form of vessel. Superboy looks momentarily surprised at seeing the object slow. He approaches the cooling ship, it still hot enough to hiss slightly as he flies closer, looking for a door. Finding one, he moves like someone trying to snatch something from a fire, adding some damage to the already damaged ship as he all but rips the door entirely free. Flying in, he begins looking for survivors, one of his hands an angry red along the palm. The ships shielding system was in overload from the impact, and having shut down along with many of its other systems, the door comes off like the lid from a tuna can. The inside was dark except for trace lighting from various panels, a strange glyph system scrolling across various screens. Suddenly there is a hissing sound, accompanied by the ominous rattling of a very angry snake. The problem was how large this snake sounded. By the volume and tone, it had to be absolutely massive. Oh, one of /those/ aliens. Superboy is immediately on guard, invisible telekinetic field raised around his entire body as he hovers carefully through, moving very slowly, focusing on everything at once, getting some X-ray practice in. For a moment there isn't much to see, but slowly Superboy's vision pushes through the walling of the vessel to hone in on something. A large writhing snake of some kind, a rattle twitching violently. Turning his vision to the side, following it to the head, Superboy's eyes finally see it. The figure of a woman, at least from the waist up, a jagged beam protruding through her shoulder, keeping her stationary. Superboy's surprise is only momentary, and soon he's at the woman's side. "Don't worry, I'm here to help," he assures, and picks a spot far enough away from her on the beam to save her from any molten metal and begins focusing. It only takes a moment before rays of heat are shooting from his eyes, the heat great enough to make the air itself glow red with excited particles. The beam is narrow, though, perhaps only slightly warming the snake-woman from the draft the damaged door is now letting in. K'or'chal snarled at the display of force, with the subtle glow in the dark Superboy could see those vicious fangs in her mouth, and possibly the black ichorous venom that dripped from them before the beam gave way, the woman slipping hard to the floor. She cried out agressivly in a foreign language, likely her native tongue; but as her eyes fell upon Superboy, suddenly he began to understand her words. <> Those words of hers almost seemed to echo within Superboy's mind, her hand reaching for a gruesome staff by her side. There's a momentary double-take at the telepathy, the young man twitching slightly. "My name is Superboy," the young man says, looking towards the woman. "And I'm currently trying to /save/ you," he says, stomping on the ground, causing the weapon to skitter away, but having no marked effect on the woman itself, the force going directly from Superboy's foot to the floor and then traveling to the weapon in a straight, direct path. "You are on Earth, and assuming this is your ship," he says, not seemingly entirely convinced, "I have no idea why it crashed." With the sheer number of Green Lanterns, to say nothing of his own relatives hailing from this planet, he figures it's probably a bit more known than the average planet in the cosmos. "Does your species heal?" he asks, looking to what's left of the beam. "I know an alien doctor, she's a Green Lantern." The woman groaned, her coils writhing underneath her as she moved to try and pull the beam out of her shoulder. Her lips moved, mimicking some of Superboy's words. After a moment, she grunted in pain as she pulled the beam out of her torso, and laying back against the deck of the ship. She said something and the words echoed through Superboy's mind once more << Green.....Lantern? >> They were more his own thoughts, as if she was projecting the meaning of her words into his mind, words she recognized. The woman was in pain, clutching her shoulder before trying to sit up. She spoke again, though nothing projected into Superboy's mind this time. The words have a simple association, an image common among people almost anywhere in the galaxy. Well, at least his version of the galaxy. Green light, will, and power. As she tears the beam from her shoulder, he moves in, placing his burned hand on her, his field quickly wrapping around her, a look of concentration on his face as he tries to keep her from bleeding out in case, in a shock addled state, she did herself more harm than good. "Your species," he repeats, "does it heal?" he asks, the question more urgent, more forceful this time. Her eyes moved to Superboy as he spoke, locking onto him. As he repeated the question, K'or'chal closed her eyes and nodded slightly. The crash had shaken her up quite a bit, several cuts on her forehead finally closing before Superboy's eyes. Her hand moved to Superboy's, a hiss of pain escaping her lips. The fluid leaking from the wound was black, ichorous in nature, her blood. After a moment, she finally spoke again, an understanding of her words reaching Superboy once more. << Yes... We do... >> she looked worried, pointing to a panel on the far wall. << break....that... >> Kon looks to the panel, and looks back to the woman, his field moving to keep as much of her blood where it belongs as he can, but also trying not to interfere with the healing process. He considers his options for a moment, and then grabs the beam that had been impaling her, aimlessly lifting it and then, with a little telekinetic shove, sends it sailing across the room, smashing the panel. The beam smashes the panel and there is a surge of energy that flows along the console before all the lights upon it go dark. The woman smiles weakly before grunting again, the wound on her shoulder beginning to close, but its going really slowly. With the cabin exposed to earth's atmosphere directly, it had cooled down tremendously. What started out as a sweltering hot temperature had begun to cool down significantly. << Cold >> came the understanding inside Superboy's mind as the woman spoke, her eyes still on him, black formless orbs, like pools of pitch. An alien spacecraft has crash landed in Rural New York, only a last-minute pulse of energy keeping it from completely smashing. Anyone coming to investigate will find the door to the craft ripped open by brute force, but, on inspection, will see it was ripped open from the outside. Inside, Superboy is holding a injured snake woman, using his tactile telekinesis to slow her bleeding while her body attempts to heal from a mild case of impalement. He looks to the panel, then back to the woman. "What did I just smash?" he asks, beginning to use his heat vision in a way he's used it for himself countless times, just spreading a general, indirect warmth towards what he's looking towards. K'or'chal forces her self to sit up slightly, her black blood smearing against the piloting console behind her as she keeps her hand on Superboys. Her language might be harsh to superboys ears despite the fact it seemed she could project an understanding into his mind. << Now. No one... can follow... >> she smiled weakly, but seemed more drained than weak. << No one follows... >> "You know, if you're a fugitive, you should probably know there's about a dozen Green Lanterns from here," Superboy says, exaggerating slightly, seeing the ichor, and renewing his focus. He's not used to this kinda detail work, staring intently at K'or'chal's wounded shoulder, continuing to emit warmth even as his field tightens up a bit, trying to lock her blood inside her body. Even if she is an escaped villain, he can't let her bleed out. "You really picked the wrong time to crash land on Earth. Or at least the wrong Hemisphere." Being one of only two Green Lanterns that are still currently on Earth, Kyle is always monitoring for stray celestial things. When his ring informed him of a downed ship, he didn't waste any time in getting here. Hovering outside of the ship, he fires a thin pale green beam from his ring as he scans the vessel and everything inside of it. Kyle hmms. "T'ch'aani bio signs...and a human/kryptonian hybrid." He grins, there was only one of those that he knew of. "Looks like I'm not the first one here." He descends towards the ship and moves to stand in the doorway. He does announce his presence. "I am Green Lantern Rayner. I'm here to help." The added heat to her wound actually seemed to help, her regeneration moving along decently. She seemed to be regenerating from the inside out, the wound pushing more blood out, a byproduct of the process. The moment Kyle lands on the ship K'or'chal's eyes go wide and she grunts, reaching out for her staff despite it being too far away, only to look more relaxed as she hears Kyle's voice, a single black tear rolling down her cheek, "Lantern!" she calls out in T'ch'aani, a slight laugh of relief leaving her mouth. Kon twitches as she tries to move. "Stay still," Superboy urges, a quick pulse of the field around her adding strength to his words as he continues to try and keep her warm. "And I told you," he jokes before turning his head fractionally to one side to call out, "In here, we've got injured." His field has the odd effect of causing the blood being pushed from her wounds to actually spread directly around her skin, the detailed work of the TTK combining with the strain of the careful application of Heat Vision screwing his face up in concentration. Kyle Rayner's life support system blinks on as he enters the inside of the ship. The intense heat doesn't touch him thanks to a thin glowing field around his body. He nods to Kon-El as he comes in. "Superboy...what do we have here?" He looks the alien over before using his ring to call the main Oan computer battery for additional information. When he's done, he'll have her identity and status of her home world. He looks at the wound. "That looks pretty nasty. How did it happen?" K'or'chal smiled at Kyle, those fangs of hers on display. "Lantern Tetch'Kre'val" she she nodded her head. Any scans of her bio-readings would indicate minor head trauma causing some disorientation, as well as a slowly regenerating impalement wound. She continued to hold onto Superboy's hand, "My ship...landed a little hard." she said in T'ch'aani to Kyle. "Part of the--," Superboy explains, cutting off as the woman explains, and he actually understands it. His voice is somewhat strained, as he's really not used to using his powers like this, at least not both at the same time. "The beam over there was through her when I got in, I cut her free, and she ripped it out. She's healing, but the cold isn't helping much. Snakegirl's got some awful timing." The beam in question is near a smashed panel, one end jagged and coated in ichor, the other looking like it'd been very carefully cut with a source of great heat. Kyle Rayner nods to Conner. "Alright. I'll put up a shield around the ship, it'll stop the heat from escaping. I take it if it gets a little hot in here it won't bother you much?" He then turns his head back to the alien. "K'or'chal Ash'k'eail. Queen of T'ch'aani...your majesty you are a long, long way from home." He pauses. "I suspect that your arrival here was by accident? And does this have anything to do with the current civil war on your home world?" Kyle had gotten the information quickly enough. "I'd help with that wound, but it'll take me at least another minute to pull information on T'ch'aani biology. Not to mention, Lantern Natu is way better at this than me." "I'm not kicking out enough heat to really hurt me. I might start sweating," Superboy answers, "but I've survived re-entry." He listens to the rest, continuing to do what he can. "It's healing, I can feel it pushing against my field," he says, "I'm just trying to keep the bleeding down." He glances to K'or'chal's face. "Princess, huh?" he asks, amused. K'or'chal shook her head, "The heat is good" she smiled. Looking down slightly trying to see the wound she says "Things went bad with the war. Mother said it wasn't safe for me there, said I had to leave. Things happened so fast in the end. I didn't want to leave.." She looks to Superboy. "Do you not have nobility on your planet?" she asked. Kyle Rayner smirks. "Does a Tameranean princess count? We do, but not in this particular part of the world. Earth isn't ruled by nobility....it's complicated." He then pauses for a moment and comments. "It seems like she'll heal on her own. Tough species." He says to Kon-El. "For now, I'm bending the light around the ship so that no one else will bother us until the Princess here is well enough to be moved. Which should be in a matter of minutes according to her species regeneration time." He looks at her again. "What happened, exactly?" "Earth's got a bunch of different governments, we haven't gone global like most species have. You landed in a democracy, but there's some Kings and Queens in other parts of the world," Superboy says, nodding to Kyle. "And yeah, we have some visiting off-world royalty here." He considers. "Hey, was Krypton a monarchy? That'd make me Prince by default, right?" K'or'chal began to recount the tale of war and her subsequent trip into exile. How her power-hungry had gotten a hold of advanced weapons, and rallied enough support to finally make a play for the throne. By the tine her tale was finished, the girl's would was nearly healed, looking more like a deep cut than anything else. "Why did the Lanterns not stop her? Why did they let something like this hap.." she turns to Superboy as he begins to mention Krypton, "Krypton? They're supposed to be all wiped out I thought." she said. Kyle Rayner listens to the tale and frowns deeply in some places. He comments to Kon-El. "Krypton was ruled by a science council. Basically, it was a democracy. Your...father Jor-El, was part of that council, Kon-El." Kyle looks at K'ori. "I apologize your majesty. Green Lanterns do not get involved in domestic disputes. Well..Hal Jordan sometimes does, but it is frowned upon. We keep the peace, but if civil war breaks out on a planet we are forbidden to interfere." He smiles. "Ah..yes Krypon is no more. But counting Kon-El here, there are four currently living on Earth. They are the last." "Basically, before it exploded, a couple Kryptonians managed to get their kids into ships that escaped the destruction. My... well, it's complicated. Superman, Or Kal-El landed here and was raised on Earth. His older cousin showed up later, having taken a less direct route, but, thanks to some suspended animation, she's actually younger than I am. I'm Kal-El's clone, mixed with some human DNA," Superboy explains, taking his hand from the woman once she's healed, resting much easier now that all he's expected to do is keep the heat going. "And the panel I smashed to kill your ship's tracking signal? Who's chasing you?" K'ori shrugged slightly. "Hopefully nobody. But K'or'malia isn't stupid. She's as skilled a tactician as my father was. Soon as she knows I've gone she'll send others to look for me." she sounded worried, but not for her self. "Your world doesn't need our war." Kyle Rayner reaches out and pats K'ori's uninjured shoulder. "Don't worry, Princess. I feel very sorry for anyone coming to this planet with the intention of causing trouble. We recently kicked the Skrulls off our planet, K'or'malia has no idea what she's in store for if she ever shows up here. Not to mention, there are like, six Lanterns that live on this planet alone. Not to mention the Justice League and the Titans...yeah. She'd be insane to come here." "The Avengers, the X-men, the Fantastic Four," Superboy adds, listing off some of the other heroes. "Yeah, seriously, I mean, with my family alone, this is probably the safest planet in a pretty good stretch, and I had to sit the last invasion out," he says with a look towards Kyle. "Besides, I guess if it goes interplanetary, the Lanterns would interfere? Or are you just as sick of Apokalips's stuff as everyone else in the galaxy seems to be?" K'ori was taking in a lot of information at once, and just shook her head. "What world am I on?" she asked, missing the reference to earth earlier. "I need to make sure my vessel isn't damaged. I...I should try and head home." she was worried for her people. "I didn't want to leave, and I couldn't disable the autopilot." Kyle Rayner replies. "You're on Earth. Third planet in the Sol System." He nods with Kon-El. "If it does go interplanetary we will interfere. If Darkseid launches a full scale assault, the Corps will stand with the heroes of Earth." He places his attention back on K'ori. "If there is anything we can do to help, please ask. Though from the look of things, you will be hard pressed to make this thing fly again." "Yeah, I'm... well, Kara's the techie, but this ship looks... pretty beat up," Superboy agrees, giving an apologetic look to the woman. "It's certainly not flying out of here today." He looks to Kyle. "Considering it's almost February, we should probably look into finding Snake Princess somewhere warm to stay." K'or'chal hisses angrily, her tail rattling loudly as she suddenly notices the condition of the piloting console. "Kree'nah!" she spits, holding her shoulder as she rolls to the side. "How am I supposed to fix this..." she sighs looking at Kyle "I can fix, but It'll take time..." her tail continued to rattle loudly. Kyle Rayner holds up both hands. "Relax. We'll find a way. Earth has some of the best engineering minds I've ever seen. My friend Stark specializes in stuff like this. He'd give his left arm to check out a real alien ship. In the meantime I think San Francisco is warmer than New York. We'll see about finding you a place to stay while you're here. I'll notify the authorities that you're a non-hostile... "Metropolis is generally more alien friendly, though," Superboy remarks. "Thanks to... well, us. Somewhere with central heat will probably cut it," he says, turning to the princess. "And we wouldn't have to haul the ship as far. I mean, I can get it to San Francisco if we need to, possibly drop it off at the tower, let Cyborg take a look at it, but," he glances towards the woman's wound. "I'm not sure we should move someone across country that was just in what was a pretty major accident, that, and, well, moving a cold-blooded individual across country, in January, with the Mid-West in the shape it's in right now?" The serpentine woman nodded. "Warmer is better, but we can handle cooler. Mostly" She wasn't being entirely honest, but for the moment it seemed she wasn't about to try and impose on their hospitality. Kyle Rayner replies. "The temperature isn't a factor. My ring and I can move the princess with relative ease and she'll never feel the elements. But you do have a point..we should find some place local to take her. And Metropolis is alien friendly. Do you think your dad could help her find a place? I would assume the Fortress would be too cold for her?" Kon shakes his head. "Fortress itself is toasty, but everything around it?" He considers the woman. "Snake-cycle. I think Kara mentioned owning a apartment building, though, that might work, if we find somewhere to stash the ship." He looks to K'or'chal. "So, Princess, what will it be? You'd be in a pretty cold area, but once you're feeling better, we can maybe see about relocating you, and it should be warming up in a few months anyway. For places nearby that could possibly have the support you'd need, we got Metropolis, which is more alien friendly, and I and my relatives would be nearby, and Kara's a genius even by our standards or New York, home of... just about every superhero ever. Then..." he does some mental math. "Few hours away, we got San Francisco, but, like I said, that's a trip." K'ori just nods slightly and smiles. "It would be my humble pleasure to so graciously accept your offer" she smiled, "I am fortunate to have found such wonderful people, and..a Lantern of all things. I've heard so much about the Lanterns from my Father" she said finally moving to rise up onto her coils. 'Standing' now she was somewhere between 5 and 6 feet tall, though she seemed rather petite and if she were a human may have stood shorter than that. "Where would you like me to go?" she asked finally reaching down for her staff, unless Superboy stops her again. Kyle Rayner moves to step outside, motioning for the other two to follow him. K'ori may notices a very thin green shield around her and when she walks out she does not feel the cold at all. "I think Kon-El has the best offer at this point. We'll go to Metropolis for now until a better option presents itself. But the choice is yours, Princess." He motions. "Superboy can carry your ship, and I will carry the both of us. It won't be long before local authorities come to investigate the crash site. We should be well away from here before that happens. Humans in general are very leary of alien visitors. Superman still isn't trusted fully in some circles." K'or'chal hefts her staff, and examines a small cluster of crystals hidden my a patch of sinew on the haft, sighing with relief before moving to follow Kyle, her lengthy tail slithering along behind her. Superboy stops on the way out, placing a hand on the door he damaged so severely, pushing it back into place so that it at least closes. "If she can--" he looks over her long tail portion, "--strap in somehow, I could handle both. The teke makes for a pretty smooth ride." He looks to K'or. "Don't suppose your race shape shifts too?" he wonders. K'or'chal shakes her head slightly, her tail coiling under her, slithering along its self taking up as minimal space as possible, "Not exactly" she said softly, smiling to him and leaning her staff against her shoulder. "Where ever is closest. I do not desire to be an intrusion." Kyle Rayner raises into the air and brings K'or'chal along with him. The snake woman would notice that she floats alongside Green Lantern almost effortlessly. "Hmm. The real question is where we can take her that will hide the ship as well. We really don't want the wrong people to get their hands on this thing." He smiles, "And you're not an intrusion, your majesty. You didn't ask to crash on our planet. And what kind of men would we be if we didn't rescue a damsel in distress?" The woman's cheeks darkened slightly, a blush perhaps. After a moment, she looked around, and down below her and just marveled at the wondrous view. "Its incredible. I've heard stories of your Green Lantern Corps from father, but never did I think I would be flying with one." she noted before looking back to her ship, and Superboy. "I think she might be a little out of your league, G.L.," Kon jokes, picking up the ship effortlessly, despite the fact that, in sheer size alone, it utterly dwarfs him. "As for the ship... New York's closest. I can see if that warehouse Captain America and I cleared out is still vacant. Villains tend to pick them because they're out of the way."